SAO PAULO — The pilots of a Brazilian passenger airplane that crashed final month, killing all 62 folks aboard, reported failure within the system to take away ice from the airplane, in line with a preliminary report made public Friday.
Investigators in Brazil had been cautious to keep away from saying this was the reason for the accident, and harassed there was extra work to be completed. Nonetheless, their report lent additional credence to aviation specialists’ most important speculation: that the carry loss had been brought on by ice formation on the airplane’s wings and failure of its de-icing system.
Climate reviews from the day of the accident predicted ice formation within the area the place the airplane went down.
Audio from the cockpit’s voice recorder included feedback from pilots indicating ice was accumulating and there was a failure within the de-icing system, Paulo Fróes, an investigator within the the air pressure’s heart for the investigation and prevention of air accidents, instructed reporters in Brasilia. The airplane’s knowledge recorder additionally indicated that its de-icing system, chargeable for stopping ice build-up on wings, turned on and off a number of instances, in line with their report.
“There are nonetheless many doubts. This accident shouldn’t have occurred, not within the situations by which the airplane was flying and was being operated. It had safety tools,” mentioned Carlos Henrique Baldin, head of the middle’s investigation division.
Operated by the airline Voepass, the flight departed Aug. 9 from the town of Cascavel, in Parana state, certain for Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos worldwide airport. It crashed into the yard of a house in a gated neighborhood within the metropolis of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of the metropolis of Sao Paulo.
Footage of the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop plunging whereas in a flat spin horrified folks throughout Brazil.
“Primarily based on the preliminary report, it isn’t potential to conclusively affirm that ice on the wings brought about the accident, however there are indications ice formation was a big contributing issue,” Henrique Hacklaender, the president of the nationwide aviators’ union, instructed The Related Press after the press convention.
The air pressure’s heart, often called Cenipa, is constant its investigation into the reason for the accident with no set deadline for conclusions. They’re additionally collaborating with an ongoing Federal Police inquiry to find out if anybody is chargeable for the crash.
ATR is a French-Italian firm. Its mannequin 72 is usually used on shorter flights. The planes are constructed by a three way partnership of Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo S.p.A. Crashes involving numerous fashions of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 deaths going again to the Nineteen Nineties, in line with a database of the Aviation Security Community.
It was the deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 folks died on board a Yeti Airways airplane in Nepal that stalled and crashed whereas making its touchdown method. That airplane additionally was an ATR 72, and the ultimate report blamed pilot error.
An American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, and the U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board decided the possible trigger was ice buildup whereas the airplane was circling in a holding sample. The airplane rolled at about 8,000 toes and dove into the bottom, killing all 68 folks on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued working procedures for ATRs and comparable planes telling pilots to not use the autopilot in icing situations.
